


You have to leave

by LioSky



Category: White Collar
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt Neal, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapped
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 18:39:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8500906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LioSky/pseuds/LioSky
Summary: Neal is kidnapped right outside the bureau with Peter close by but unaware of what is happening. Neal is in for a tough few days, and have to make a tough choice. And when it is all over will he be able to be the same man as he was?





	1. Taken

He had been about to walk home from the office when it happened. He couldn’t help but think now when he was laying on his stomach on the floor of the van tied, gagged and blindfolded with an aching head, that the whole thing could have been prevented if Peter had just agreed to drive him home when he had asked for a ride. But Peter had said no, and here he was. He had no idea of who these people where. One thing was for sure and that was that they were brutal. He had only resisted right at the moment when they grabbed him but then they had hurt him, so he stopped. He was pretty sure that one of his ribs were cracked. It hurt a lot. But that wasn’t the worst. It was his arm. 

His arms were tied with thick rope, probably the same kind that they had put around his head and in his mouth to stop him from screaming, or talking for that matter. They had tied his arms hard, they had only been in the van for maybe ten minutes, but he already had trouble feeling his fingers. He intensely wished that he couldn’t feel anything from his right arm. He was sure that it was broken. Adrenalin was still pumping through him, but he was sure that the pain would hit him much harder as soon as he calmed down. Thankfully the rope wasn’t tied over the break, but close to his hands. It still hurt a lot.

Peter had found him to be annoyed today at the office. He had only been joking, but the FBI-agent obviously thought that he took it too far. That was why Peter had refused to drive him home when they got out of the office and Neal had asked. 

“Come on, Peter. I was only joking before you know that right? You are an excellent driver.”

“Well, the answer is still no, Neal.”

“What, isn’t the fact that I’m willing to step into a car with you now proof of how much I trust your driving skills?”

“Good night Neal. You have a nice walk. I will do you good.” Peter had smirked and left him standing there feeling stupid. 

That’s where he had been standing, looking after Peter, when they came. It was at least three of them, he didn’t really had time to see. It all happened very fast, almost like it had been rehearsed. Hands grabbed him and started to drag his arms behind him as they tried to get him down on his knees to be able to blindfold him faster. The worst thing was that he could still see Peter. He could see his salvation disappearing away from him, and he couldn’t do anything to get Peters attention. 

They got him gagged first, quick and effective, but they struggled more with his arms, and somehow he managed to slip them. For a wild moment he thought that he had a change to get away, but it was crushed as soon as someone got a hold of his hair and pulled hard. He fell backwards towards the ground, and then he noticed that they had already gotten rope around his right arm, and someone had been holding the other end of it. It straightened and he knew when he fell that something was bound to give away, and it was his arm. He had closed his eyes in despair as he felt the bone in his arm snap. 

Tears came into his eyes and that was when he stopped resisting. When the blindfold came on he could still see Peter’s blurry figure disappearing in the distance before things went dark. He was roughly dragged up and led to what he understood was a wan. He couldn’t help but moan when they threw him face forward down on the floor of the vehicle. He had no change of breaking his fall and landed painfully shoulder first. He could hear the men jump in behind him and the doors closed. Someone got behind the wheel and the car started.

He flinched when someone put weight on his lower back to keep him still. Someone else grabbed his legs. No, just the left one. The anklet! They knew about the anklet. He was so screwed. The grip on his leg tightened as his pant leg were pulled up. He kept his leg still and let them cut it. Fighting wouldn’t do him any good, and with his broken arm he wouldn’t be able to do much anyway. Pain rushed through his ankle as they carelessly cut the anklet off, cutting into his leg at the same time. They didn’t care that they hurt him. Cold air rushed against them, and he understood that they had opened a window and thrown the anklet out. That had been his only hope as soon as he realized that this was happening. He was getting kidnapped. But with the anklet on, Peter would find him right away. But not now. At least with it gone, Peter would know that something had happen to him. Peter would look for him. He would come! He just had to stay alive until then. 

Now he was just lying there trying to stay as still as possible. His arm was throbbing painfully, and he wished they would release the bounds just a little. It was not like he could do anything anyway. They must have noticed when his arm snapped. He certainly had heard the break.   
What frightened him more than anything else about the situation he was in was the behavior of his captors. During this whole time they hadn’t uttered a single word, and that scared him. They were efficient enough so that they didn’t need to talk to each other to get the job done. That told him that his kidnapping was planned in detail. They had chosen to grab him just outside the bureau and with Peter so close. It was a risky move from their part, but still they hadn’t hesitated at all. Who were they? What did they want with him? 

Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

\- WHITE COLLAR - 

Peter couldn’t help but smirk a bit to himself when he saw Neal’s face fall after he had been rejected a ride. That kid had been totally obnoxious today. He didn’t know what was going on with Neal. Maybe he was just bored and restless. It was highly probable. But Peter had let it get to him, and the only revenge he had been able to come up with was making Neal walk home. After all it wasn’t that far, and also Neal could use the walk to calm down.   
The younger man hadn’t done anything special to get Peter annoyed, it was just many little things. Peter suspected a few of them, if not all was aimed to actually annoy him. Neal had amused himself with seeing how far he could push Peter. He had seen through it though and had pretended to be fine with Neal’s mischiefs. Until now that was, making him walk home would give him some time to think through what he had done, and give Peter a relaxed car ride home to his wife.   
Elisabeth had called him earlier saying that she was waiting with dinner until he got home. Another reason not to swing by June’s place. El was waiting for him after all. 

However as he got to his car he actually felt a slight bit of remorse. It was quite far to June when he thought about it. And Neal wasn’t exactly dressed for walking any longer distances. 

He started the car and decided to just drive and see if he could spot Neal. He couldn’t. He was nowhere in sight, which was a bit strange when he thought about it.   
He had to hit the brakes hard to not drive straight into a white wan that just had stopped in front of him by a red light. He had been a bit distracted looking for Neal, something that Neal definitely would have commented on if he had been in the car. It would have been pretty embarrassing to cause an accident like the one he had been really close to just doing. This was nothing he was going to tell Neal about, he would have a field day with it. 

No matter how much he looked he couldn’t spot Neal. He considered giving him a call, but decided against it. Elisabeth was waiting after all. He better hurry home now if he was going to get any food. He knew that she would give his dinner to Satchmo if he wasn’t there on time. 

\- WHITE COLLAR - 

Neal wasn’t there when Peter got to the office the next morning. He had actually called Neal in the morning to ask if he wanted a ride, and to make peace. If Peter picked him up, Neal had to agree to not drive him crazy today again. 

It was just that Neal didn’t answer. He even tried him twice. Once when he was finishing up his breakfast, and then again when he was in the car, close to the exit towards June’s. He got a bit annoyed again at Neal for not picking up. Was he sulking now? 

Neal usually was punctual, but now he was an hour late. Peter called him again, with no answer yet again. He was just about to pull up Neal’s anklet when Jones walked into his office, without knocking, which wasn’t like him. 

“Jones?” He questioned. 

”Peter, I think we have a problem. You are not going to like this at all.” 

“Of course I’m not. What is it?” He paused for a second. ”It’s Neal, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, Peter, it looks like he cut his anklet last night.”

“What? Are you kidding me?” 

”No… I wish i was. Why would he run now? He was no reason, right?”

“Of course he hasn’t. And Jones, why the hell are you telling me this now?” Peter stood up. What the hell was Neal doing?

“I just found out myself. I just got the report from the Marshalls office, they are saying they have been having technical problems with Neal’s anklet.”

“Technical problems? But they think he cut the anklet?” 

”Yes they do. It’s just that it didn’t send out an alarm like it is supposed to. They found out this morning.”

“Which means that Neal has at least 12 hours head start.” 

”You really think he cut it?”

“No, I don’t. Something else it going on here.”

Peter rubbed his face. This was not a good start of the day. 

”Get a team together. Let’s find him.” 

\- WHITE COLLAR - 

“All right. Let’s see what we got.” Peter started as they were all assembled in a conference room ten minutes later. 

“When was the anklet cut?” 

Jones looked at his papers. “At 7:13.” He answered, and Peter couldn’t help but stare at him. 

“Boss?” Diana said. ”What is it?”

“That is just as me and Neal left the office. Why would he…” He trailed off, lost in thought. It was right after Peter had refused to drive him home. 

“What happened?” Diana asked.

“Nothing, he asked me for a ride, and I said no.” He shouldn’t have said no. 

“He cut his anklet because you wouldn’t give him a ride home?” Jones stated with a smirk. 

“No way.” Peter said. ”He isn’t that stupid.” 

“It must have been right after we parted. I kind of changed my mind and drove to look for him, but I couldn’t see him. I figured that he maybe went back up to the office.”

“Let’s check the security tapes. He must have done it within camera range.” Diana said, and said and done, five minutes later they all gathered around Jones’ computer. 

Jones found the right footage on the second camera he checked. And what they saw shocked them all. Peter just stared at the scene that played on the screen. 

“He was taken.” He whispered out in the room. 

\- WHITE COLLAR -


	2. Chapter 2

The first time Neal showed up on the screen was when he was together with Peter, the both of them stopping and you could see them talking. Peter could see how Neal slumped a bit when he realized that Peter wasn’t going to give him a lift. Peter’s chest was hammering hard in his chest as he saw how Neal just stood there and watched him as he walked away. Peter’s figure disappeared out of view and only seconds later Neal was attacked. Peter jerked a bit when he saw the violence that was used to grab him. Diana gasped and Jones swore next to him where they were gathered around the computer. 

It looked like the aim of the attackers was to restrain and gag Neal as fast as they could. Rope was bound hard around his mouth to stop him from screaming, and they also went to restrain his arms. Neal fought them with all he had, and Peter’s hope rose a bit when it looked like Neal was getting away. Neal’s attention was the whole time directed in the direction where Peter had disappeared, it almost physically hurt him to realize that, that Neal was reaching for him when he managed to get one hand free. However one of his hands was tangled in the rope that was held by one of his attacker. He only managed a step or two away before he was grabbed harshly in his hair and they pulled back, making Neal fall on his back. At first Neal’s whole body tensed, and after that he didn’t fight back. He was just lying there on the ground as he was jerked around and restrained and blindfolded. After that he was lead out of the frame. 

Peter started at the screen that now didn’t show anything of importance. Neal had been kidnapped. Taken. Literally right behind his back. He thought about how Neal must have felt, just watching him walk away from him right when he had needed him the most. 

“Play it again.” He ordered and Jones did what he asked. Peter clenched his jaw tightly. 

“Wait.” He said when Neal was yanked on the ground again. “Play that part again, the part when he falls.” He watched intently and when he realized what happened he felt sick. 

“Shit…” Peter breathed out. ”They broke his arm.” 

“Damn.” Jones said. ”Where did they take him?” He started to search through the footage from other cameras. Peter was just staring unseeingly while he did. Neal was hurt. They had broken his arm. What else had they done with him? Why did they take him? 

“There!” Diana pointed and got him out of his trance. They watched as the company walked into the frame towards a white wan. “No…” Peter whispered. He recognized it immediately. It was the same wan he drove behind yesterday. Neal had been in there, so close. 

They watched as the door was opened and Neal was shoved inside. The whole abduction couldn’t have taken longer than three minutes. 

“Track that wan down!” he unnecessary ordered. “Diana, find out so much you can about the anklet, when and where it was cut. If we find it, there might be prints.” He doubted it would lead somewhere, but they had to try. “Then we need to dig out as much as we can about this and who could have taken him.” 

After he had ordered his people to do everything in their power to find Neal he retreated to his office. He needed to call El. He just needed to hear his voice. 

“Hi hon.” She answered carefree like everything was normal, like actually was in her world. 

“Hi hon.” He answered, and she immediately knew that something was wrong. 

“What happened Peter?” He paused. ”Hon?” 

”It’s Neal, El. He was taken. Someone took him yesterday, just outside the bureau.”

“Oh my god. Why? Do you know anything?” 

”No, we just found out. We are working on it.” 

“You will find him, hon. You know you will.” 

“Yeah…” he sighed. 

“You want me to talk to Mozzie? He might know something.”

“Yes, that be great. I hadn’t even thought about it yet.” He really hadn’t. Everything was so fresh. 

“Okay. Are you okay?” she asked him. 

“I was right there El. He could still see me when they took him. He tried to escape after me, but I didn’t know. I should have just given him a ride like he asked me.”

“You didn’t know Peter. Neal won’t blame you.” 

”They broke his arm, El.” He could hear her gasp and closed his eyes for a moment, waiting for her to say something. 

“Well,” she started. “You need to find him fast then. What are you talking to me for.” 

“Okay, yeah you are right. I’ll call you later.”

“I will have Mozzie get in touch with you.”

“Thanks hon.”

They said good bye and he sat there behind his desk for another minute, before he collected himself and walked back to the conference room where the activity was   
going at full speed. They were going to find him.

\- WHITE COLLAR - 

He thought that they were driving for about thirty minutes before they stopped. They probably didn’t drive too fast to draw unnecessary attention to themselves. He had some trouble deciding the time too, since his arm really was starting to bother him, so he probably could have been counted wrong with ten minutes or so. But this meant that they were still in New York. The whole journey was conducted in the uncomfortable silence. 

Maybe they couldn’t talk? Maybe they were all mutes recruited so that they couldn’t talk to each other during the job. No, that was really stupid. What was he doing? He should focus on getting out of here. They probably had been told to shut up so that Neal wouldn’t be able to id them later. If he got out of this that was.   
It wasn’t much he could do to get out of this at the moment. He found that the best thing he could do was to try and stay as still as possible and wait for the right time to make his move. Either that, or wait for Peter to find him. 

The car had stopped. He could hear movement next to him, but still jerked in surprise when he felt hands on his body. They pulled at his legs and dragged him out of the car, he felt air above his legs and begged that they wouldn’t just drop him on the floor. They did, and he couldn’t stop the sound out of his mouth at the impact of the concrete floor. He couldn’t see a thing, but heard footsteps walking around him. The car started again and drove off. Was he alone? Did they just dump him here?  
No! Hands took hold of him and heaved him upright, he stumbled in the direction they led him, until his legs hit something hard. Hands forced him forward and he was leaning against a car. He heard a door opened before he was yanked back, and then forward again. Someone pushed hard against his neck and he was forced to dive forward and down. It was the trunk of the car he realized. They were changing vehicles. That didn’t bode well, they were more organized then most and it would make it harder for Peter to find him. They shoved his legs inside as well, he tried to kick out, but a hand just sneaked out and put pressure on his broken arm making him moan and stop. They tied his legs hard and closed the trunk. All without uttering a single word. 

He breathed deep around the rope and waited for the car to start. He couldn’t hear any movement from outside the car. Nothing. He kept waiting, wondering why they didn’t drove off. 

They left him there. He had realized that now. They just shoved him in the trunk and left. He didn’t get why. Was it just to store him for some time as to not draw attention to the car, or what was it? 

His head hurt. He had gotten a headache. The arm wasn’t much better. Every movement hurt a lot so he tried to stay as still as possible in the cramped space. He couldn’t afford to panic now. He couldn’t. He didn’t know how much air he had. He was getting warmer. Normally he had no problem with small spaces, but now when he was tied up, blind and gagged he had. He had a big problem with it. He just wanted out. He was getting angry and frustrated. 

He had tried yelling. He still could make sounds, just not form any words. He had tried and now his throat hurt and felt sore. No one had heard him. He had tried to kick where he guessed that the back lights of the car would have been, but maybe it was a newer model because nothing happened. He just couldn’t get out of this. It was frustrating for him to accept. 

What if Peter couldn’t find him? With the anklet and all he had almost suspected Peter to have found him already. But he hadn’t. He just had to wait and give Peter some time. He could do this. It was probably just a few more hours. It could be worse. He was still in New York. A city of more than 8 million people. No, no negative thoughts. Peter would find him soon. He just had to wait. 

Peter would come and Neal would joke and say that it took him long enough, and the next day they would go to work, maybe after a quick trip to the hospital. And Peter would drive him home every day from now on. He was sure of it. Hopefully Peter wouldn’t feel too guilty. 

He actually managed to fall asleep for some time. He had no idea about anything when he woke up. He didn’t know what time it was. How long had he been here now? His arms and legs felt pretty numb at the moment. That was good. It was hard to think when you were in pain. 

He didn’t really feel scared. He had been scared that one second when he fought with all he had, but then he thought rationally. There was a reason behind this. He just had to figure it out and then get out of it somehow. Easy. Hopefully.

He spent hours and hours alone in the trunk before he could hear movement outside again. He didn’t make a sound. It had to be them. He was too tired to do anything at the moment anyway. It was so warm in the trunk and the air was bad. And he was bored! Eventually he had started to long for them to come back. It probably wouldn’t be pleasant, but at least he would get out of here. 

The trunk opened. He stayed still and just waited. 

“You want to get out of there, or what?” Someone asked him then. It surprised him as the same time as the question annoyed him. How was he supposed to do that? That question was answered when rough hands grabbed him and he was dragged forward and out. It jarred his arm and hurt like hell and he moaned. They held him standing as someone cut lose his legs. After hours and hours, at least he thought so, he could barely support himself when blood rushed back into his feet. But they helped him with that. 

“Take him inside.” The same voice again. 

After a minute of walking, or stumbling from Neal’s part, he was forced to sit down on a chair. 

“Don’t try anything or it won’t end well for you.” He was warned and then the rope around his arms were cut. He screamed behind the rope in his mouth when they took hold of his arms to do it.

“What is that about? Is he hurt? I told you I wanted him unharmed?” The annoyed voice said. That sounded positive. Maybe they didn’t want to hurt him? 

“He struggled when we grabbed him. His own fault.” Another darker voice said. 

“Let me see. Hold out you hand Caffrey.” Neal flinched when a hand touched his arm and brought it forward. He just stayed still and let them. 

“Can you move your fingers?” 

Neal’s left hand was now loose as well and it went to the rope in his mouth. However it was bound so tight that he couldn’t get it off, he fumbled with the knot. 

“Get it off him.” 

He worked his jaw a couple of times, it felt sore after being forced open for so long. 

“No.” he said.

“Too bad.” They let go of his arm and he dragged his close to his chest. Just that simple movement cause pain to shoot down the limb. He waited for his captor’s next move. 

“You can take it off.” The man said. And he did. The sight that meet him when he removed the blindfold was one that he rather not meet. It was quite terrifying and he jerked back in his chair. Four men was standing around him. What was terrifying about them was the masks they wore. They were black hoods that covered their entire heads, you couldn’t make out any characteristics from them what so ever. The hoods were most likely made from some soft fabric which made it possible, and maybe even easy to breathe through it. However all of them standing there with dark faces was intimidating. His heart was beating hard in his chest. 

“What…what do you want with me?” he asked. 

“What we want Caffrey, is to teach you a lesson.”

“What? What are you talking about?” He leaned back in the chair as the man stepped closer. 

“We know all about you, all about what you have done for them.” 

“For who?”

“Don’t even try to con us.” Suddenly the man brought up a glove covered hand and slapped him hard across the face. After that he straightened up again. 

“Tie him up.” 

“What? No! What do you want? Come on!” Neal tried to move away, he tried to bargain. “Look, you can just leave me like this. I won’t go anywhere. If you just…No..oww..” They had grabbed his broken arm and twisted it behind his back together with the left one. They were now being tied behind his back by one guy as another worked on his feet. Someone smacked him over the back of his head as he tried to kick out. 

“You are just going to sit here and relax for a bit now Caffrey.” The guy who obviously was the leader said. “We have some help for you.” He held out two white round   
pills in the palm of his hand. 

“No way. I’m not taking those.” Neal said. He wouldn’t. Not voluntary. 

“You can do this the easy way or the hard way Caffrey.”

“Oh, really? You are going with that?”

“Are you enjoying this or something?” The frustrated man said.

“Not particularly. Are you?” 

”Do you want to take them voluntary or do you want us to force them down your throat?”

“Can my answer be neither, because…” He didn’t get further than that, because the man in front of him lost his patience and waved at the silent guys who immediately stepped forward and grabbed his head and shoulders to keep him still. The third guy violently forced his mouth open and it was nothing he could do about it. He did try but the leader stepped up to him and put the two pills in his mouth. Neal tried to spit them out with the help of his tongue, but they forced his jaw closed.

“Hold it shut until he swallowed them.” The man said as he wiped his hands on his pants.   
Neal could feel the bitter taste of the pills in his mouth. He tried again to get free, but it didn’t work of course. He then stuck the pills below his tongue and pretended to swallow, he made a sound as to indicate he had done it. 

“He is faking it. Keep your hold on him. Eventually they will dissolve.”

He was right. They did dissolve and Neal could feel the substance going down in his stomach every time he was forced to swallow saliva. Eventually he just gave up and relaxed as much as he could in their holds. He was really getting sick of them holding him like this. 

After about two minutes, when the pills long ago had dissolved in Neal’s mouth to his despair, did they let go of him. 

“See you later Neal.” They all walked away, and he was left alone in the room wondering what he had just swallowed. “I hope you like the dark.” The man said, and the lights turned off. 

Turned out he didn’t. 

\- WHITE COLLAR -


	3. Chapter 3

It was very dark Neal thought. He couldn’t see anything actually. He really did try though. If he could get lose he would have tried to wave his hand in front of him, but he wasn’t free to do that, so instead he tried to see his legs. He couldn’t see them. There wasn’t one source of light in the room. That wasn’t nice. He wished they would at least have left one of those night lights on. He had had one when he was a kid and had been scared of the dark after they moved to that old new house.   
No, he needed to focus. What was he doing? He needed to get lose and then escape. That was what he needed to do. He wasn’t really sure how to do that though. They had him bound tight to the chair. But it was hard to except that he couldn’t get lose, so he had to try just one more time.  
That time didn’t work either. 

He really wondered what those pills had been. He actually felt kind of weird. It was hard to focus. It was hard to keep a straight thought, because his mind kept wondering off, and he forgot what he was thinking of. It felt like it had been something important. 

At first he had thought that they were going to give him some sort of sleeping pill. That’s what they had told him that they were to help him relax. That would have been a smart choice too, if they had wanted him to be quiet. But he didn’t feel sleepy at all, it was the opposite actually. He felt alert and he was having trouble sitting still. That made it really uncomfortable to be tied down. He knew that his writs was bleeding now, from how much he had pulled at them. Or at least the one, he didn’t want to pull at the broken arm, because that really hurt. 

It was too bad that it wasn’t pain killers they shoved in him. If they had told him that it had been pain killers he would have taken them voluntary. But they had been stupid and had forced it down his throat. It had been very unpleasant. 

He didn’t know just how long he was sitting there. He tried to come up with different strategies to amuse himself, but he couldn’t think of much, because he really couldn’t focus long enough. It was very annoying. 

He wondered where Peter was. He wondered what he was doing. He was most likely looking for Neal, he really hoped he was. Neal wanted him to come now.   
Hopefully Peter didn’t think that he had ran. But he couldn’t think that right? Why would Neal run now? It made no sense, and Peter would understand that, right? 

He must have been there for hours now. He wasn’t feeling all that well. A while ago he had stared to shake, he didn’t know why. He didn’t think he was cold, but it was the only explanation he could come up with, before he remembered the drugs. That must be it. 

He was starting to feel nauseous now, which wasn’t pleasant at all. He really didn’t want to throw up in here. But he felt it coming, his mouth was starting to fill up with saliva no matter how much he swallowed. 

“Oh god…” He moaned. ”Please no.” he begged out in the darkness. “I need to throw up.” He called out, but there was no answer, no one came. He remained alone, which wasn’t that much of a surprise. 

He was just feeling worse and worse, and in the end he couldn’t stop it, and he leaned as much as he could to the side to not get it on himself. He spit on the floor when he was done in a wain attempt to get the foul taste out of his mouth. He wished he had some water. He wanted to rinse his mouth. 

“Can I have some water? I’m really thirsty.” He was. He wanted something to drink so badly. He was hungry too. ”Hello!” he yelled. ”I need some water here.” No one came. 

How long were they going to leave him here? It must have been days now. It certainly felt like that, but logically it couldn’t be. He would be dead then, and he wasn’t. How long can a human last without eating or drinking. He had heard that you could survive three days without something to drink. 

Where was Peter? Why wasn’t he coming? Neal really needed him to. He didn’t want to be here anymore. It was so dark, and he really didn’t like it any longer. 

“Peter!” He called out. ”Peter, I’m in here.” He didn’t think that Peter could hear him, but it didn’t hurt to try. He didn’t come. 

He was starting to get tired now. The shaking had stopped. His body felt heavy. He let his hang forward. One good thing was that he was starting to feel a bit more coherent. He drew the conclusion that whatever they had drugged him with was starting to leave his system. Since he didn’t know what drug he had been giving he couldn’t be sure of how long of a time had passed, but if he had to guess, or if he reasoned logically they probably left him for the night, and would be back the next morning. 

Maybe he should try to get some sleep. He needed to be sharp for the next time they came. He still didn’t know what they wanted with him. He was pretty sure however that he would find out on the next visit. It scared him to think about it. They were intimidating, he did admit that. 

He wasn’t tired enough to fall asleep sitting up like this. He really wished he could. It was so boring to just sit like this and wait for something that he had no control over. He didn’t like to not being in control of the situation, or at least not being able to do anything at all to try and control his situation. In this case he didn’t have a choice. All he could do was wait. 

– WHITE COLLAR – 

Peter was also waiting. He was waiting for a lead, any lead at all that could help him in his search for Neal. But so far the few leads that they did have turned up empty. They had the plate numbers of the wan, that turned out to be stolen, the wan itself they couldn’t find any traces of. It was like it had disappeared, and that had been their best lead. 

They didn’t get much from the cameras either. All they knew really was that Neal had been taken by three men, that all were slightly taller and broader than Neal.   
They had checked with all the hospitals in the city for a man with Neal’s description with a broken arm, but had come up empty. That had been a long shot from the beginning. It was not likely that they would seek treatment for Neal’s injury. That was almost the hardest thing for Peter to think about, Neal was injured and hurting, where ever he was. 

Peter was also waiting to hear from Mozzie. So far he hadn’t and he was getting annoyed. He had called El again about Mozzie, but she said that she hadn’t reached him yet. He asked her to try again. 

Mozzie called him two hours later. He sounded worried, and promised that he didn’t have a clue on where Neal was. He would investigate Neal’s whereabouts on his end, and they decided to get in contact later. The sum up, it didn’t look good. He had no leads while Neal was suffering somewhere. 

It was late now. The whole day they had searched for Neal, going through old cases and trying to find something to link Neal’s kidnapping to. The rest of the team had already left for the day, and Peter knew he should too, it just didn’t feel right to go home and sleep in his comfortable bed next to his wife when he knew Neal was out there somewhere. 

Peter forced himself to head home an hour later. El was still up waiting for him when he got home. She questioned him about Neal the first thing she did, and looked devastated when he had to disappoint her. 

“Oh, poor Neal.” She said sadly and hugged him. He hugged her back and kissed her on top of her head. It felt good just standing there holding her in his arms. 

“If I just had given him that ride, El. Then he would be home safe in his bed right now.” He said against her head. 

“Then they would just have waited and taken him some other day. These guys seems to be professionals, if you don’t have any leads by now.”

“You think so?” 

“You know so too.” She replied, and Peter had to agree with her. But still. 

“But maybe I would have been able to prevent it then if it had happened on another occasion.” 

“But they did it when you were still in sight of Neal, maybe that was there intention. For you to know how close they got to you, and you still didn’t see it.”

“But why would they do that?” 

“I don’t know honey. That’s what you need to figure out. Tomorrow morning. Now come with me to bed.” 

He did what she told him, but had a hard time falling asleep, his mind occupied of thoughts of Neal. It was so frustrating to not know where he was, or how he was treated. What was he thinking? Was he scared? Did he think that Peter was coming? He certainly hoped so. 

– WHITE COLLAR – 

He woke to darkness. At first he didn’t know what was going on or where he was, but then he remembered. He had been kidnapped. He felt weak and feverish, and not at all well rested and sharp that had been his plan when he fell asleep. 

He stared out into the darkness. He couldn’t feel his arms anymore. At least that meant that he didn’t hurt, but it probably wasn’t a good thing not to be able to feel your arms. 

Why would they just leave him here like this? 

He didn’t fall asleep again after that. He just sat there and waited until the door suddenly opened and light flooded into the room blinding him. 

“Oh god. It smells in here. What the hell Caffrey.” His captor was saying. Neal ignored him, he just tried to get his eyes to get use to the light as fast as possible. 

“Get it cleaned up.” The guy ordered someone and one of the men left the room again. Three of them were still there standing in front of him. They all had those awful masks on. Neal just waited, as did they until the man how had left returned with a bucket and a mop. Neal’s dry mouth watered some at the sight of the water in the bucket. 

”Did you have a good night sleep?” They mocked, while his mess was cleaned up.

“Do you really want to small talk, or can we just get this over with?” Neal sighed. He really wasn’t up for playing games. 

”I thought small talk was your specialty Caffrey.” The leader tilted his head and Neal looked up at him. It was unnerving not to be able to see his eyes. The others were standing in the background. 

“What do you want?” Neal asked and they laughed a bit even though Neal didn’t see what was funny. 

“Well, there is mainly two things that we want with you Neal, the rest is just for our entertainment. But the first thing is that we want to teach you a little lesson.” The leader said. Until now his voice had been light, like he was just small talking about the weather. But then it changed and became hard. “The second thing we want is revenge.” 

”For what?” 

”One thing at the time.” He stepped closer and Neal couldn’t help but try to move away from him. He didn’t get very far though. 

“What you are doing Caffrey, you are a damn traitor. You were one of us, and then to save your own useless skin you switch sides. You start to turn in your own people. You are a fucking rat!”

”I don’t really think you are my kind of people.” As if wanting to prove that the guy slapped him hard across the face, making his cheek sting. He shook his head a bit.   
“See my point?” He asked and was rewarded with another slap, on the other cheek. 

“You think this is a joke? You think you will get out of this just like that? Unharmed? You are wrong. We know all about you Caffrey. We know about your deal with Burke. This is to punish him as well.”

“What?” Dread started to rise within Neal, but he did his best not to show it at all. 

“You know what Neal. We are going to let you go.” Neal didn’t say anything. No way were they going to let him go. It was a trap or a catch. They wouldn’t go through all of this just to let him go again. 

“We are going to let you go, and you are going to fucking leave the FBI.” 

Neal almost laughed. “Yeah, and how do you propose I do that. I thought you knew about my deal. Then you know it’s not over yet.”

“Not my problem. You run, you go back to prison, you make a new deal. Whatever, I don’t care. You have to leave. That’s what we want.” 

Neal just stared at him. What the hell was this? They really were crazy. “What do you care? Why do you risk getting caught by the FBI for this, for me to leave them?” 

“We are just doing some cleaning up.” The guy unhelpfully said. 

“What does that even mean?” 

“We are getting rid of you, you piece of shit. You are going to leave the FBI and stop giving up your own people.”

“You are not my people.” Neal repeated. “And I’m telling you, I can’t just leave the FBI, you know I have a deal with them, it’s not like I’m employed. I can’t just quit.”

”Well, you know what. You are staying here until you make a new deal.”

“How am I supposed to do…”

“With us. You tell us you will leave, and we will let you go. That’s all you need to do, and we will let you go. How does that sound Neal?” 

”You know what, I think I’ll rather wait for Peter. You know he always finds me right?”

The guy stepped forward and leaned over him as he grabbed his throat and applied pressure. “Not this time he won’t.” He breathed. ”We took you right in front of him. He didn’t even turn back. He won’t find you. He doesn’t care enough anyway. You are just a tool to him. He is just using you.”

He let go and Neal coughed. “You are wrong.” He wheezed out. The man hit him in the face again. This time with his fist. It hurt a lot. When Neal got upright the man bent forward and Neal tried to move his head away, but his arm sneaked back and grabbed his broken arm. Neal felt with horror as his hand searched along his arm with pressure until he found the broken area. He pushed. Neal couldn’t help but scream out and trash in the chair trying to get away from the awful pain. 

He was panting and on the verge of passing out when the man let go. 

“We’ll just let you think things through.” He said then. “Move him to the box.” 

Neal didn’t like the sound of that at all. What box? The other guys moved now. They all stepped towards him as the leader backed away. They untied him, and he just let them. His arm was hurting too much for him to feel like it was worth it to resist. To his luck they didn’t tie him up again. They were holding him in a tight grip, and he stumbled when they dragged him up right from the chair. 

“This way.” They pulled him towards a corner of the room. When Neal saw what was there behind the leader guy, he thought it was worth it to resist. To resist a lot. All   
he could actually. But it didn’t help. They were three against one. Four really. They roughly pushed him towards a wooden crate with a thick lid with a lock attached to it. He did not want to get inside of that thing!

But no matter how much he struggled they pushed him inside. He ended up sitting down inside of it, after they had heaved his leg over the edge. He pushed himself upwards with his good arm, but then a fist hit his face and he fell backwards with the force of it and ended up laying uncomfortably against the wall of the crate. The lid was forcefully closed on top of him and he screamed in frustration. He was trapped like an animal. He heard them lock it. Someone banged the roof of it and kicked the side, the noise loud inside the box. 

“Noo! Let me out! Let me the fuck out of here.” He screamed at them in anger. But he couldn’t hear anything now. They had left. They had left him in a damn box. It was pitch black again, his arm hurt incredibly and he could feel tears of anger and frustration threatening to fall. He was breathing hard as he wiped his face and cradled his broken arm to his chest. 

He could barely sit up inside the box, he had to crunch down a bit, and pull his legs up. He couldn’t fully stretch them out before he hit the other side of the box. He tried to get his breathing under control, and tried to not let anymore tears fall. He kind of wanted to let it out though. He was tired, in pain and actually a bit scared. “Damn it.” He whispered. He breathed through his teeth, and tried again to calm down. But it was so god damn dark. He wished he would just be able to a little, but he couldn’t. 

He listened but couldn’t hear anything except his own harsh breathing. He allowed himself to break down a little then. Just for a short moment he thought. It just took too much effort to hold it back at the moment. And he didn’t think they would be back in a while now. He would have time to compose himself before that. He still cried silently and tried to control it as much as he could. He cursed himself for even doing it in the first place. It left him exhausted, and he fell into a restless sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

When Neal woke up again he didn’t know where he was at first and he panicked. Then he remembered. He was in the box! He would have panicked some more, it was just that he didn’t think it would do him any good any way. It took a lot of energy though to keep himself from hyperventilating. He tried to tell himself that he had been in worse situations. 

All though he wasn’t sure that he had. His arm was throbbing and the rest of his body felt stiff. He just wished that he could stretch out some more, but the edges of the box prevented any kind of movement. He really was trapped. He closed his eyes and breathed out of his mouth for a few minutes. If he just calmed down maybe he would be able to do something about the situation. It helped a bit to keep his eyes closed. It meant that he didn’t have be aware of how dark it was, and it scared him much more than he liked to admit to himself. 

When he was calmer he opened his eyes again and was met with complete darkness and silence. With his good hand he started to explore his prison. He searched every inch of it, but found nothing at all to help him to get out. The hinges that kept the lid in place were out of metal with large screws. If he had had some kind of tools he might have been able to get them out, but with his one bare hand it was impossible. His only change was if someone opened the box from the outside. He tried to push the lid off, but it wouldn’t budge at all. 

Shit! What was he supposed to do now? He guessed that Peter was his best option right now. These guys wasn’t afraid of hurting him to get what they wanted, he knew that. And they wanted him to quit the FBI. It was absurd actually. Why go through all the trouble of kidnapping him, just to teach him a lesson as they said? He had no intentions what so ever to do what they were asking. In fact the whole situation rather got him to want to get these guys more. He wished for Peter to arrest them and threw them in jail. Then they might even get why he did what he did, why he took the deal with the FBI. Prison was no fun. 

Neal suspected that things were going to get worse before they got better. He would have to stall things for as long as he could, to give Peter more time to find him. Right now he would really much like to see Peter’s gruff face. He wished for him to open that lid and make some stupid comment as the same time that he would look at Neal with worry in his eyes. 

They had to be looking for him. They had to know that he had been kidnapped as well. After all it happened just outside the FBI. Neal still didn’t get why they had done it. Peter had been so close. But then he remember what that crazy kidnapper had said earlier. This was to punish Peter as well, so maybe they did it just to taunt Peter. To show him that they were able to grab Neal right behind his back. 

When were they coming back? He had been in the box for hours now. The box wasn’t airtight to Neal’s luck. He would have suffocated otherwise. There were four gaps between the material between the lid and the walls of the box. The gaps were large enough for him to squeeze a finger through, but not much larger. It didn’t help him at all. 

He must have been in the box for hours when he suddenly heard the faint sound of the door to the room he was in open. He had spent the time just dozing and trying to stay as still as he could, both to save his energy and to not move his arm too much. But now they were back and he tensed, preparing himself of what was to come.   
He noticed how they turned the lights on but were blinded when they opened the lid. He held up his arm to keep the light out of his eyes, but rough arms grabbed him and dragged him out. He moaned in pain but let them led him where they wanted him. He was pushed down on the floor close to the wall at the opposite of the box. He could see it from where he was and the sight of it made him shiver. 

The four men surrounded him, still wearing those hoods. He blinked up at them. 

“What now?” He asked. 

”Did you have a nice time Caffrey?” The leader asked and Neal could hear the amusement in his voice. 

“Shut up.” He said. He was done playing nice. They would hurt him anyway. He was right, because the man closest to him on the right stepped forward and kicked him. His foot connected with Neal’s side and jarred his arm. It wasn’t much force behind it, but Neal still saw stars since it was his broken arm that was hit. He panted as he tried to control the pain. 

The men didn’t care at all about his discomfort.

“So have you had time to think about our offer?”

“Screw you.” Neal bit out and then braced himself for another kick. It didn’t come. They laughed at him and he felt himself blush in humiliation. He made to stand up. He didn’t want to be sitting down with them standing above him like this. He didn’t get far though, he was violently pushed backwards into the wall before he got to his feet. 

“Stay down.” One of them said, and Neal did but shot the man who spoke a glare. 

“Are you going to leave the FBI?” The leader asked. 

Neal rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. “I already told you that I can’t do that. They own me, I can’t just quit. It’s not a job, it’s a work release. It's not possible.” 

“You are resourceful Caffrey. You can figure something out. You have a few options as I see it. You can either go back to prison or you can run. Ditch them.” 

“Yeah, or I just wait here for Peter to get your asses to jail.”

“Ha. You really believe that he is coming for you. How the hell is he supposed to find you? We are good at what we do.”

“You obviously haven’t met Peter then.” 

The leader nodded his head towards the guy at Neal’s right and he didn’t have time to brace for the kick. It came so suddenly. It hit his shoulder this time. Neal hissed and clutched himself. He didn’t think something was broken. But it had jarred his arm again. He blinked hard to get rid of the tears that came without his permission. 

“Peter is not going to come for you, Neal.” As he said that he leaned down and grabbed Neal’s chin hard in his hand and turned Neal’s face up towards him. Neal could feel his breath as he spoke. He tried to jerk his head away. He didn’t answer. 

“I bet he is glad to get rid of you. You only bring him trouble. You are supposed to help him, and what do you do now. You are wasting enormous resources while they are looking for you in wain.” He pushed Neal’s head hard into the wall behind him, and then slapped him hard across the face. 

“Drug him.” He said as he stood up. 

“No!” Neal tried to crawl away, but they were on him. He tried to kick at them, but one gut sat down on his legs and pushed him towards the wall. One guy grabbed his left arm and pinned it to the wall, not bothering with his broken arm. Not that he could use it anyway. With his other hand the guy grabbed his hair and pressed his head towards the wall. Neal tried to get loose. He did with all he had, but the third guy came closer with on hand in the air. He came down next to the others. 

“Open up.” He said and Neal snapped his mouth close. The guy grabbed his jaw and tried to force it open. Neal resisted, but he knew that he was losing. Tears sprang up in his eyes from the pain in his scalp. The guys thumb started to push in between his teeth and he bit down as hard as he could as soon as it got in. The man cursed and punched Neal hard over the jaw. The force behind is stunned him and he the guys gloved thumb once again got into his mouth and pushed his lower jaw down. With his other hand he put a pill in Neal’s mouth. He then pressed Neal’s mouth close again. Neal couldn’t help but moan. His vision was blurry. 

He could hear laughing. 

“Just swallow it. It’s easier for everyone.” The leader said. And Neal did. He just did it. He wanted the men off him. They were all holding him to hard. It hurt. 

“Let him go.” 

Neal sagged down when he was released and hid his face from the men. He wiped his face angry at himself for showing them weakness. 

“What is that?” He croaked out, but was ignored.

“It seems like you aren't ready yet and need some more time to think. Remember, all you have to do to get out of here is to say that you will quit the FBI.”

"I told you, I can't.”

“Or you don't want to.” The man said. “You will stay in the box until you change your mind.” He waved at the other guys who came closer to Neal again. He made a weak attempt of resisting but he was no match for them. 

“Come on, I can do that perfectly fine here. Don't put me in there.” 

They didn't care and he screamed and cursed at them as they closed the lid and left the room, leaving him in darkness again.

– WHITE COLLAR – 

There had now been about 37 hours since Neal had been taken. They had no leads at all. The only thing that was new was that they had found the white van. It had been found burning in a rough part of town. The fire department had been there and put the fire out, but it seemed like it had been wiped clean. Forensic were working on it now, trying to found leads, anything at all that could led them to Neal's whereabouts. Peter doubted that they would find something. These guy were goodly hiding their tracks. 

Peter had Jones and Diana work on different angles. Diana worked with looking in to their previous cases trying to find something that could be connected to Neal's kidnapping. Jones looked into Neal's former life. 

Peter were coordinating with other departments and teams that were helping them in their search. He had the IT department looking at surveillance cameras to try and find the route that the van had been taking. 

"Dammit Neal. Where are you?” He mumbled to himself. He had a hard time concentrating. His mind keep drifting back to the video footage of Neal being taken. The way he had just collapsed as they broke his arm. Right now Neal was being held somewhere, alone and hurt. He must be waiting for Peter to find him. 

The day passed slowly and Peter were getting more and more frustrated. It was getting late. They still had nothing and it was almost two days now that Neal had been in captivity. 

Peter stomach growled. It was past dinner time. He had called Elisabeth earlier to let her know he was going to be late. She understood and reassured him the best she could that he was going to find Neal. 

After he hang up it had only gone a minute and then his phone rang. He looked at the display and saw that it was a blocked number. Something told him to answer. 

“Hi Peter.” 

Peter almost fell out of his chair in surprise. He immediately got up and waved at Jones and Diana and gestured for his phone. Jones got busy and Peter turned all of his attention to the phone call. 

“Neal!”

“How are you?” Neal's voice sounded different. Hoarse. . 

“How I am…Neal where you? Are you okay?”

“I…I'm okay.” Neal hesitated and Peter became wary. Something was not right at all.

“Can you tell me where you are?”

He could hear something rustle in the background and Neal let out a gasp. Nothing else.

“Neal, what's going on?” Nothing. Or was there a faint sound of someone moaning?

“Neal? What's happening? Talk to me!”

“Peter I gotta go.” Neal forced out. 

“No Neal, wait. Stay on this line. We are tracing the call as we speak. We are looking for you.”

He heard how Neal grunted and he said “Hurry” and started to stay something else but the call was disconnected. 

“Dammit!” Peter yelled and looked over at Jones who shook his head. That meant that they still had nothing. They had nothing and Neal was not fine. Someone must have been controlling him, because Neal had said nothing of value. 

The IT department got more to do while Peter, Jones and Diana had a small meeting to discuss ideas and the phone call. 

“Boss, do you think that this has something to do with you? I mean, they took him right behind your back and now they are letting him call you.” Diana said. The same thought had crossed Peter's mind. They were going to look into that the next morning. 

Peter went home and slept for a few hours, hoping that Neal was able to get some undisturbed sleep as well. He doubted it. 

– WHITE COLLAR – 

Neal slept off and on that night. At least he thought it was night because they didn't come back in a long time. 

They had returned after what he guessed a few hours after they had stuffed his drugged self in the box. The second time in there had been worse than the first. He was pretty sure he had had a panic attack. He hadn't been able to breathe and it freaked him out. He thought he was going to have a heart attack, his heart was beating so hard. 

He had been screaming himself hoarse. Screamed for them to come back and get him out. Then he screamed for Peter to come. Why the hell did he take so long?   
He had been pushing at the walls of the box with his legs exhausting himself without achieving anything. Of course they wouldn't budge. 

He was trapped in the box forever. It felt like it was days, when it probably just were hours. He no concept of time, and did his best to remain calm after he manage to come down from the panic attack. He was shaking though and he almost thought that he had gone into shock. 

As time passed he understood that it was the drug that caused him to react the way he did. But he just wanted out! He felt that at this moment he would do anything to if he could just get out. 

He dozed off and woke up in confusion. He hugged himself and tried to fall back asleep, just so that he wouldn't have to think. 

He woke up from a loud bang on the outside of the box and when it opened and he looked up and saw two of the masked men standing above him he almost wanted them to close the lid again. Fear crept into him when he looked up. They dragged him out of the box and this time pushed him down in a chair. They then tied him to the back of it with a thick rope. He didn't bother to resist. He wished they would just leave him alone. 

“How are you feeling Caffrey? You don't look so hot.”

Neal didn't look at him and chose to stare at the floor. His head was pounding. He wanted something to drink. He didn't know if he actually said it aloud or not because in the next moment a water bottle was pushed against his lips. He drank greedily as much as he could. He almost finished the whole bottle, but before he could it was ripped away from him. He blinked confusingly when the man tipped the bottle over his head and emptied the rest of it over him. He shook his head to clear the water out of his eyes.

“What do you want?” He rasped. The sound of his voice surprised him. 

“What do you think? We are trying to get our message through to you. But you don't seem to get that we are serious.”

“Oh I get it, but I don't think you do. I'm not going to do shit for you.” 

“That's where you are wrong.” The leader where standing In front of Neal and he now nodded towards one of the guys behind him. Before he had time to react something was placed over his face and pulled back right. It was a plastic bag. 

Neal trashed. He could see blurry figures standing in front of him. Their black masks made them look unreal. He couldn't breathe! He tried to get away, tried to claw at the bag over his mouth but do to being tied down he could reach. 

He started to feel faint and was about to pass out when the bag was removed. He gulped deep breaths and coughed. 

They laughed at him and he wished he could disappear. “Stop.” He panted. “Stop it.”

“This is what's going to happen. We are going to let you make a phone call. Unless you want to repeat that you won't say anything of value.” 

“What am I supposed to say then?”

“You figure it out. Ask how he is feeling? What he had for dinner? I don't care. Nothing of importance.”

Neal glared at him. 

“If I like what you say this won't happen.” He pulled the plastic bag out of the other man’s hand and waved it around in front of Neal. 

He swallowed and leaned away as much as he could, but he nodded. A phone was held out next to him and he heard a dial tone. He felt like crying when he heard Peter's voice. He closed his eyes as they spoke. It was comforting to listen to Peter's ranting. However the call only lasted for a minute or so, but Peter was looking for him and that felt good. For like three seconds he felt the best he had in in two days. Then he was slapped across the face. 

“Did you get it now? He doesn't have a clue on where you are. You are screwed. You can only get out of this if you agree to our terms.”

Neal didn't answer and was rewarded with another slap. 

"Stop." 

“All we want you to do is ditch the FBI. You say you do that and we will let you leave.”

“I…I can't..I..”

“Back in the box.”

"What!” Neal exclaimed. “No, come on.”

They didn't care. They untied him and started to drag him towards that damn box again. He made himself limp in their arms, the only way he could think of to resist. As they came closer he felt panic and fear rise within him and he started to struggle. “No..no..no please. No..”

They ignored his please and forced him yet again inside the box. “No!” He screamed as they closed the lid. He pressed on it, trying to stop it but in vain. There was nothing he could do and he was in enclosed in darkness. 

“Let me out!” He screamed and hit the lid repeatedly. 

"Scream all you want Caffrey.” The leader yelled at him. “You know what you have to do to get out.” 

Neal only cursed at him. They left. 

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, in order to not totally flip out. He kind of wanted to freak out though, he was so close. He was scared and in doubt. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to get out so badly. Maybe he should just tell them whatever they wanted him to and they would just let him go. He didn't think it would be that easy though. Why would they just let him leave if he said that he was going to leave the FBI? What did they get out of it? Why were they doing this to him? It seemed totally pointless to him. Why wouldn't they just kill him if they hated the fact that he was working for the FBI so much? He just didn't understand. Nothing made sense. 

Neal was hurting, he was scared and so hungry. He hadn't eaten in days now. He felt despair. Where was Peter? Why wasn't he coming to get him? 

He wasn't sure if he could wait for Peter any longer. Maybe he would just do what they said. He didn't want to give them the satisfaction to break him. He was stronger than that, right? Wasn't he? And also he didn't want to disappoint Peter. And also maybe most importantly he didn't want to leave the FBI. Not like this. He didn't want to run. He didn't want to go to prison either. He just wanted to get out of here and not have to deal with any of this anymore. 

But at the same time he didn't want them to hurt him anymore. The choking had been one of the worst experiences he had. He thought for sure that they were going to kill him. He hated them. He hated their damn masks and their demands. He wasn't going to let him win over him. 

After an eternity the lid opened again. He wasn’t as sure then if his defiance. He was thrown on the floor. They drugged him yet again this time as they pinned him to the floor. He screamed at them. They kicked him as he was laying there. He cursed at them. 

“I won't do shit for you!” 

He yelled and tried to avoid another kick. He succeed. But then the leader was on him. The plastic bag came out once more. Neal struggled but was hold down by multiple hands. The leader pressed the plastic bag over his face. He couldn't breathe! He passed out. 

He was woken by someone slapping his face. He woke up in panic, coughing with tears in his eyes.

“Leave me alone.” He panted. “Please leave me alone.” He pushed himself away from them as best as he could. The leader held up the plastic bag again and Neal whimpered. “No, no, no.” 

They laughed again. He hated that sound. “Not again.”

“You are pathetic. Look at you.” 

Neal didn't look up. He was prepared to agree. He was ashamed of himself but just couldn't stop himself from crying out in fright as the man’s hand came down on his face. But it was to slap him this time. He left his hand on Neal's cheek and smeared his tears around a little. Neal stayed still. 

"It's time to make another call.” He said and held up a phone towards Neal. With a shaking hand he grabbed it. 

“I think you are done now, aren't you. You know, I'll be nice. You get to say whatever you want now Neal. I think you earned it. However I think you are smart enough to know what is good for you to say and what isn’t.” 

He walked away from Neal and joined the others by the door. They just stood there and watched him. He wished they would leave. The sight of them terrified him. New tears welled up in his eyes. He cradled his injured arm to his chest and struggled with the phone. His sight was blurry and his hand was shaking so much. His whole person shook as he clumsily dialed Peter's number.


	5. Chapter 5

Peter was looking through phone records when his phone rang. It was a blocked number again and his heart immediately started to beat faster. It had to be Neal. He called for Jones to start a trace again, and the younger agent soon did a thumbs up as Peter answered. 

“This is Peter Burke.” He held his breath as he waited for the answer on the other end of the line. 

“P-Peter?” Neal sounded so different this time. Just that one word, his name made Peter fearful. 

“Hey Neal. It’s so nice to hear your voice.” He said. He needed to drag out of this as long as possible. 

“Yeah.” Neal hissed. His voice was hoarse and shaky, even though he had only uttered two words so far. 

“Are you doing okay?” As he suspected Neal ignored the question.

”I kind of need you to find me Peter.” Peter could hear how Neal’s breaths were hitching and it almost physically hurt him to know that Neal was crying on the phone. 

“I’m working on it Neal, I promise that I will find you. I always find you. You know that. Is there anything you can tell me about where you are?” He knew it was a long shoot, Neal’s captures was listening for sure.

“I…I can’t Peter. They will… They will…They are here. I just can’t. I’m sorry.” Neal whispered into the phone, confirming his suspicion about the call being monitored. 

“It’s okay Neal, it’s okay buddy. Don’t worry. I’ll find you anyway.”

“Yeah…That’s good.” Neal whispered. 

“Neal, are you hurt badly?” Peter just had to know.

“Yeah…” Neal sighed after a moment of silence. “A bit.”

“Okay, you hang in there.” 

“When are you coming?” Neal quietly asked, and Peter’s stomach sank. He felt his eyes starting to burn, but before he had a chance to answer he heard rustling on the other end and Neal screaming “No! No! Don’t…No, let me”

“Neal! Neal! Neal??” He yelled into the phone, but it was all quiet. The call had ended. “Damn it!” He yelled and forcefully put the phone down. “Did we get anything?” He swore again as he was met with head shakes. He rubbed his hand through his hair and then hid his face in his hand for a moment to collect himself. 

“Boss? Are you okay?” Diana carefully asked him. 

“Yeah…” He stood up. “They are hurting him. We need to find him now! Did we get anything at all that we could use?” 

“Well, Neal didn’t exactly provide us with any clues.” Jones said.

“He is being held against his will and hurt, I think that’s understandable. It’s our job to find him.”

“Yeah, I know Peter. I’m just saying I’m not sure that this call helped us much. Except that we now know that Neal is still alive.” 

“Yes thank you Jones. That’s enough. Any other thoughts out of you?” He knew that he was being unfair to the younger agent, but couldn’t stop himself. Jones didn’t seem faced by it though. 

“Why would they let him call you? There was no demands or anything.” He said.

“To taunt Peter?” Diana suggested. “Let us know that they have him and that they are hurting him and we can’t do anything about it.”   
Peter nodded. “That thought has crossed my mind as well. It’s weird that they let him call us and then doesn’t let him say anything of value and doesn’t make any demands what so ever. This isn’t a normal kidnapping. Let’s see if we can get anything at all out of that trace. We need to find him fast!”

The activity started up again and everyone went back to their assignments. Peter felt kind of shaky. Maybe he should eat something. He wondered if Neal had gotten anything to eat at all. Sadly he doubted it. 

He thought back on what Neal had said. There wasn’t much of value that he had said, Jones was right about that. He had just begged Peter to find him, in his own polite way that was. But he had been crying. Neal had been crying. That was really bad. He hadn’t seen Neal cry except out of sadness. It wasn’t something he ever wanted to witness, nothing he ever wanted for Neal. But Neal experienced something awful right now, he had the right to be upset. Peter couldn’t help to wonder what they had been doing to get Neal to cry. Hopefully he wasn’t hurt badly. He just wished he could help him. That he was able to do anything at all to help Neal right now.

The worst thing was that Neal was waiting for him. Neal put all his trust in Peter. It meant that Neal didn’t think that he could get out of the situation himself and that was bad. Most likely it meant that Neal was hurt badly then. Maybe he was tied down and couldn’t get loose.

The questions filled his head and wasn’t very helpful. He didn’t know if any of them were correct or not. He should get back to work. If he just could find a lead! Just one single thing that could bring them closer to finding Neal, because knowing he was out there, hurt and waiting was killing him.

– WHITE COLLAR – 

“Wasn’t that nice?” The leader taunted him after he had ripped the phone out of Neal’s grasp. “Is he coming to get you?” 

Neal didn’t answer.

“He still hasn’t got a clue on where you are right? He is useless. Or he just doesn’t care enough.”

“Shut up. He is coming. He’s my friend. He cares.” Neal didn’t know why he said what he did. Maybe it was for his own sake. He needed to convince himself of the fact that Peter was coming. But it seemed to be true that Peter didn’t know where he was. It pained him to the core that Peter didn’t know. He wasn’t on his way. He wasn’t going to burst in from that door and arrest them and save Neal. It wasn’t happening. 

“Oh, he is your friend, is he? He is using you. Which friend uses another friend? Or are you just that desperate for friends that you think your captor is your friend? You are even more pathetic than I thought. It’s about time you dump him. Besides you might think that you are his friend, but you are not his. He doesn’t care about you. He is probably not even looking for you. You piece of shit.” 

It was like he was working himself up while he was talking and he kicked Neal. Not too hard but hard enough for him to fall over and end up laying down sprawled out on the floor. The man stepped forward and used his foot to put pressure on Neal’s throat. Neal wasn’t prepared at all but immediately tried to get him of him. He was choking! 

“Aren’t you tired of this?” The man asked. “Don’t you want to leave? All you have to do is say that you will leave the FBI, and then do it of course. We’ll stop.” He removed his foot.

Neal didn’t know how to respond. He just didn’t, so he didn’t do anything except lay there panting and coughting. It was an unusual situation for him. He kept his head turned away and stayed still. He just wished that they would leave him alone. He was trying to take deep breaths. 

It had been so difficult to talk to Peter for some reason. As soon as he had heard his voice something in him had broken. He had been crying, trying to hide it from the men in the room. Peter’s voice represented comfort and safety. With Peter it would always be okay. But Peter wasn’t here now, he was all alone with people who only wanted to do him harm. He was hungry, thirsty, tired and in pain. He didn’t know how much more he could take of this. 

“Aren’t you going to answer, huh?” 

Neal didn’t react. 

The man backed away a little and Neal breathed out in relief. He laid his head back down on the floor, but kept an eye on the men. He tried not to think. He didn’t want to think about anything. He felt exhausted. He tried to stay awake the best he could. He watched as the men sat down with the door opened. Neal’s stomach rambled as he felt the smell of food. The door was open. He should try to get away. He just didn’t have the strength and his eyes slipped close. He would just rest up for a minute, then he would try.

“Caffrey!” 

Neal woke with a jerk that jarred his arm making him cry out. The man above him laughed. Neal had no idea how he had been able to fall asleep right there on the floor. He hadn’t meant to.

“I thought you were hungry. Got you something.”

The man threw parts of a sandwich on the floor next to him. Neal felt like crying again then. Oh god. He was starving, so hungry. He hadn’t had anything to eat in at least two days. He didn’t know how long he had been here. But to pick up food from the floor, he wasn’t sure if he could do that either. He felt so conflicted, but the hunger won over the humiliation. Besides, maybe they would take it away from him if he didn’t eat it now. He reached out and took it. The bread was dry, almost hard, but he ate it anyway. Tears streamed down his cheeks while he ate. He felt so humiliated. Why wasn’t Peter here yet? 

Suddenly the man was there again. He pulled the chair that Neal had been in earlier up closer to him and sat down on it turned towards Neal. 

“You are not doing so hot are you, Caffrey?” He asked and continued when Neal didn’t answer. “You know it’s rude not to answer when someone speaks to you.” 

“What do you want from me? Why are you doing this? Why do you care?” Neal hissed. 

“You know what I want you to do. And as to why? It’s none of your business. I’m just doing some cleaning up. Helping you understand where you belong. And it’s not with them.” 

“It’s not with you.” Neal said with venom. He didn’t think he ever had hated someone this much as he did this man in front of him. 

“You are fooling yourself if you think it’s with Burke. I bet he despises you.”

“No, he doesn’t.” 

“Hah.” The man let out a laugh. “You really do idolize him. He brainwashed you. You keep thinking and believing that he is coming to save you. No one is coming Caffrey. You can only save yourself here. ” 

Neal wished he would stop talking. He didn’t want to hear these things. He knew they wasn’t true. Peter was coming. He had said so.   
It had been hours though. Right? Peter had said he would come and find him, but he still wasn’t here. He just couldn’t understand where he was? He was supposed to be here. Neal needed Peter to get him out of this one. He just couldn’t do it himself. He wasn’t strong enough. Not this time. Right? Or was he? Could he agree? He could just tell them that he agreed and then help Peter to get them. 

The thing was just that it seemed like they really wanted him to do it for real. What would they do if he refused after he agreed? Would they kill him? But how would they know? 

He didn’t want to do what they wanted. He had told them that he refused. He didn’t want to give in to their demands. That wasn’t who he was. He didn’t let people pressure him into doing things. He always came up with another solution, mostly by talking to people and eventually get them on his side. He couldn’t do that with these people. He didn’t know what they wanted, or at least not why they wanted him to leave the FBI. It was all very strange to him. 

He didn’t feel good though. Not good at all. He felt all weak and shaky. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to stand up. He was so tired as well. He felt like he was close to his limit. Like if he was pushed much further than this he would break. He had no idea how that would happen, what he would do or how he would react then, but that was what would happen.

What if Peter wasn’t coming? What if Peter actually couldn’t find him? Or what if he wasn’t looking at all? Maybe he just said so. No, he had to remind himself. That wasn’t true. Peter were looking. He was coming. Right? 

The man had left him alone again for a while. He had barely noticed when he left. But he did notice when he came back again. He was suddenly standing above Neal looking down on him. Neal was pretty sure that he was smiling under his mask, but couldn’t see it. He was enjoying this, toying with Neal. 

“Comfortable?” He mocked and nudged Neal’s head with his foot. He was wearing black leather shoes. Neal tried to move away from him as he suddenly sat down on his heels, a bit too close. The other men started to grow closer. Dread filled Neal’s chest as he glanced over towards the box. The leader seemed to notice because he laughed again. What was so funny? 

He suddenly leaned over Neal and his hand came out. Neal’s reactions were to slow and he grabbed hold of his broken right arm. He squeezed. White hot pain exploded from his arm, and he screamed straight out. The man threw his arm to the side as he stood up again. 

“What the hell is so hard for you to understand?” Neal heard him say over the daze of pain he was in. He didn’t dare to move an inch, fearing that he would pass out if he did. He felt sick. 

“Your choice is between leaving Burke and the bureau and ditch town, or go back to prison. You are not going to put on more of us behind bars. Damn you for betraying us. You are a disgrace. We should just kill you. And we will Caffrey, if you don’t do what the hell we ask of you.” 

Neal moaned without being able to stop himself as he was kicked again. They aimed at his arm. 

“St-stop. Stop it.” he said.

“You know what?” The guy said directed towards his companions. “Maybe he is missing his box. He has been out of it for too long now. Put him back in there.”

“No!” Neal screamed then. He tried to get up. He needed to get up! He had to get away. He felt himself starting to panic. All other thoughts disappeared from his mind. The pain dulled. 

He couldn’t be in that thing again. He just couldn’t! Help! He needed help. He looked around the room but could only see the damn men in masks. They were coming towards him now. All of them like in some sort of horror movie.

”You know all you have to do is to leave.” Their leader were saying. They were almost by him now. He had pushed himself up against the wall with a force he didn’t know he was able to possess. Not standing, but trying to get on his feet. He didn’t get much further than that before they were on him. 

One man grabbed his arm. Another man the other, his broken one. But as they started to drag him towards the box it was like he didn’t feel the pain of it. He resisted with all he had and the only way he could think of. He made himself as heavy as he could and fell down on his knees to make it harder for them. They dragged him forward anyway. He couldn’t. Neal broke then.

"Okay!” 

He screamed.

“Stop it! Okay I'll do it! I'll do it! I'll do it. I'll leave the FBI. I will.” Neal was panting with tears burning in the corner of his eyes. He felt like absolute shit. He had just given in. He had given up. Said what they wanted. They had won. 

"Oh, well, well, well. You finally broke.” The man cheered. “You are agreeing to our terms?”

“Yes! Okay yes! Just let me go. Leave me alone.”

The men laughed again. And Neal couldn't stop himself from flinching at the sound. He tried to pull away from their grips.

“That's good Caffrey. That was l we wanted to hear. It wasn't so hard was it?”

He leaned over Neal and his hand came up and patted his head in a condescending way. He then bent Neal’s head up towards his face.

“Alright Caffrey. Are you listening?” 

Neal looked up and nodded. 

"This is what's going to happen now. We are going to get out of here, you are going back in the box.”

“No, no, no.” Tears started to fall again. He didn't care. Not the box! “I'm doing it! I'm leaving. I did what you asked! You can’t put me back in there. Please…” He pleaded.

“You did. It's just a reminder. If you break your word we will come for you. We will find you and we will get you and put you back in there after we beat the shit out of you. Then we will leave you in there to die. You only get this one chance.”

He grabbed a hold of Neal’s hair and shook his head violently. “Do you understand?” he asked. 

“Yes…” Neal whispered. 

“Good. It wasn’t so hard was it?” He jerked Neal’s head one last time and when he let go, Neal let his head loll down. He didn’t want to look at the man anymore. 

The leader then did the sign to his companions and they were over him, all three of them. Neal struggled this time. He ignored the pain that flared up in his arm making him think that he would pass out. He didn’t care what happened to him. He wasn’t going back in there. He hit, clawed, scratched and kicked. He screamed at them. Pleaded. Nothing helped. They lifted him and he was forced down in the box. Hands pushed to hold him down. He was crying.

“Remember that we will be watching your every move. And not just the four of us. Remember that we can get to you everywhere. We are everywhere. Neal.”

Something was thrown at him, something hard and small that bounced of him and landed on the box floor. 

“Call whoever you want. Don’t expect Burke to come. He won’t. He’s probably just glad to get rid of you, you know. Bye Caffrey. Hopefully we won’t have to pay you another visit.” 

They closed the lid after that and left Neal once again in complete darkness. He had tried to get up as soon as they let him go and it resulted that he got the lid smashed over his head. The force of it made him dazed and nauseous, but he didn't care, just pushed with all he had at the lid, that didn't budge. He cried out in anguish as he realized that it was no use. Something burst inside him then. He started crying really hard. He was sobbing uncontrollably, so much that it became hard for him to get enough air. He hit the walls with his left hand as hard as he could, he kicked. Wailed. He wanted out! 

He didn't know how long it lasted. But eventually he stopped. He needed to get out. They said that he could go now. But how? He was trapped! He couldn’t get out! It was locked. He was going to die. It was so hard to breathe.

He understood that he needed to calm down. He needed to calm down and think. His breaths were coming out way too fast. He knew that he was panicking, and that wasn’t good. He needed to calm down. He needed to think. He needed to get help somehow. It was then he remembered that they had thrown something on him before they locked him inside of here. 

He started feeling around him on the floor and his hand came over the thing that had been tossed at him. It was a phone! He shed a few more tears of relief as the screen lit up. It wasn't dark anymore! He almost laughed out of joy. The screen came to life and illuminated the cramped space. He stared at it.The screen saver on the phone consisted of a few words. An address. 

He punched in the numbers with the phone resting against his thigh. His hand was shaking so much that he had to retype multiple times. He prayed for enough reception as he waited for the dial tone. It came! 

– WHITE COLLAR –


	6. Chapter 6

His phone was ringing, and he glanced at his watch. It was a little past midnight, who would be calling this late if it wasn’t important? Maybe they had a breakthrough in Neal’s case! Or was it Neal again? But Neal had called from a blocked number so far. This wasn’t. He answered immediately. 

“This is Burke.” For a moment he didn’t hear anything on the other line. “Hallo?” 

”Peter?” Came a whispered voice then. It was Neal!

“Neal? Neal, is it you? Oh thank god.”

“Peter.” Neal said again, his voice barely audible. Peter desperately looked up and met El’s eyes. He nodded. It was Neal. Jones, he mouthed to her and she disappeared in search for another phone. 

“Yeah Neal I’m here.” 

“Can you come now?” Neal was saying.

“Did they let you go Neal? Where are you?” 

“They left.” 

“Okay, good. That’s good buddy. Of course I will come. I just need to find out where you are first.” He carefully said, he wasn’t really sure if Neal was right. Why would they just leave him? 

To his surprise Neal told him an address in a strained voice. Peter wrote it down and showed it to El who passed it through to Jones.

“Oh, Neal, is that where you are?” 

“Yeah… They told me. I…I didn’t know before. Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m on my way right now.” He was already on his way towards the car after El had confirmed in a whispered voice that Jones was on it. “Bring him home.” She whispered with tearful eyes as she helped him with his coat. 

He hesitated a moment. He knew that he really needed to talk to Jones, he needed to bring back up to the location Neal just said, back up and an ambulance. 

“Neal, buddy. I need you to tell me if you are sure they left or not.”

“They did. Just now.”

“I need to know it’s not a trap Neal, I don’t understand why they would just leave you.” He felt like crap when he heard Neal let out a sob on the other end. 

“No, I swear.” He said. “They really left Peter. They said they would.” 

“I need to be sure Neal.” 

“But I need help. Please, you said you’d find me.” He slurred, and Peter could hear him crying. It broke his heart on so many levels to know that Neal was doubting even for a moment that he wouldn’t come, that he was begging him to find him. That wasn’t what Neal did. These people had reduced him to someone he wasn’t. 

“I am going to find you Neal.” Peter did his best trying to sound reassuring. 

“I want to get out now.” Neal whispered. “Please. I don’t want to be here.” 

“I’m coming Neal. I’ll get you out.” 

“How much longer?” 

“We are on our way Neal. We will be there as soon as we can.” 

“Okay. Okay. That’s good.” Peter just hated how Neal sounded. He wished he never would hear Neal’s voice sound like this again. That Neal never would have another reason to sound like this. 

Peter was by his car now. The address Neal had given him was about 20 minutes out. With little traffic he might be able to do it in 15, it was late so it was a slight chance. He put the phone on speaker when he got in. He had a text from Jones that read that he was gathering a team to meet Peter at the address. 

“So you are really coming to get me?” Neal was asking now.

“Of course I am Neal. I’m in the car now. I’m going above the speed limit.” 

He could hear Neal breathing in the phone, but he didn’t answer. “Neal? How badly are you hurt?”

“My arm…” Neal said. 

“Something else?” He wanted to keep Neal talking. He was still at least ten minutes out. 

“They…they kicked me.” Neal said. “And hit me. I tried to…I tried.” 

“I know you did. You did good Neal.”

“No, I didn’t.” Neal whispered brokenly. “I didn’t.” He let out a sob and then another one, before he managed to control himself again. 

“I don’t feel so good Peter. I want…I want it to be over now. I want out.” Maybe not so much in control. This was something Neal never would admit.

“It is Neal. It is over. I’m on my way now. Everything will be okay.”

“Really?”

“Yes Neal. We will come and get you.” 

Neal was quite for a while and Peter pressed the phone to his ear to hear him breathing hard. 

“Neal? Can you tell me where you are?” 

“But I told you. I told you already. I told you. Please.” Peter swore. Neal wasn’t coherent enough for this. He pressed the car to go faster. 

“Neal…buddy… Hey, calm down.”

“They said…they said that you wouldn’t come.” 

“That’s not true Neal.” He did his best to calm Neal down, but wasn’t sure it was working. He was still about ten minutes away.

“You are coming right? They said you wouldn’t. But…but I thought you were my friend... That we were friends.”

“I am coming Neal. I’m on my way to you. You are my friend, you know that.” 

“I told them, but they…”

“We are friends. I promise you.”

“Okay…” Neal whispered. 

“Neal, listen. Are you listening to me?” 

“Yes Peter.”

“Good Neal. Now, I need you to tell what it looks like where you are.”

“But it’s so dark. I can’t see, Peter.”

“Okay, that’s okay Neal.”

“You won’t find me now?”

“I’ll find you anyway.” 

“Okay.” 

“I’m almost there Neal.” It was true, because he was only a couple blocks away. He told Neal that and parked the car two minutes later. Jones and a team with two cars had already arrived and was getting out of the cars. 

“Neal listen, we are outside now.”

“Okay.” 

“Do you know which part of the building you are in?” 

“No.”

“It’s fine. We’ll find you. Just hold on one moment Neal.” 

Peter removed the phone from his ear to talk to Jones. They were standing outside something that looked like an abandoned office building. 

“Alright people, Neal is inside there somewhere. He is in a bad state and hurt. He doesn’t know where he is. All he has told me is that he is that’s its dark and that he is trapped somewhere and can’t get out. The perps might still be here, Neal couldn’t be sure so I need everyone to keep an eye out. Let’s do this.” 

He lifted the phone back to his ear. “Neal, are you there?” 

“Yes.” 

“We are right outside now. So I’m going to have to hang up now Neal.”

“No, no, no.” Neal started to say. 

“We will see each other in just a few minutes.” He could hear Neal’s harsh breathing over the line. “Do you understand?” 

“Yeah.” Neal whispered barely audible. Peter closed his eyes for a moment. 

“Okay good. See you soon.” He hang up. He cursed to himself. He felt like crap for hanging up on Neal, but took a deep breath and drew his gun and joined his team. It turned out that Neal had been right the building was empty. Too empty because they hadn’t found Neal either. But so far they hadn’t looked that thoroughly. There had been a basement and Peter had a feeling that that’s where Neal was. Somewhere. 

They found the right place a few minutes later. Peter scanned the room. Neal should be here. He needed to be here, this was the only possible room for him to be in. And it had been locked from the outside after all. But where was he? Why would this room be locked? There was nothing in here. No sight of Neal. But then he saw it. Dread filled Peter's whole being as his eyes landed on the concrete box in the far corner of the room. No, it couldn't be. Neal wouldn't fit in there, would he?   
Peter stepped closer. “Neal?” He called out almost wishing that he wouldn't get an answer. He wished that Neal wasn't in the room that he was somewhere else entirely. That was so much better than the thought of him being inside that box. 

That was when he heard it. A muffled sound coming from the box! No. No. No.

Peter rushed over to the box and saw to his fright that it was locked with a pad lock. “Neal?” He called out. “Neal are you in there?”

“Peter?” A weak voice answered him.

Oh god! He was. Oh god, he needed to get him out. “It's me Neal. It's me, I'm here now. I'll get you out!”

He could hear faint hitting from inside the box and Peter fumbled with the phone to text Jones to bring bolt cutters. 

"Peter? Are you there?” Neal asked then. 

“I'm here.”

“Please let me out…” Neal begged him then and Peter's heart broke at his tone.

“I'm working on it Neal, just a few more minutes.” 

“No…please.” He almost couldn't hear him. Neal was breaking apart in there. 

“We need to get the lock opened Neal. It's going to take some time. Just hang in there.” 

“Peter please!” Neal called his voice growing louder. “Please, please…I won't leave. I won't run, just let me out.” 

Peter didn't know what he was talking about but did his best to get through to his friend. 

“Neal, listen to me, please listen. It's locked, but Jones is bringing bolt cutters, so it will only be a few minutes now, I promise.” 

Nothing came from the box and Peter crouched down to hear better. That's when he heard muffled sobs coming from the inside of the box. Neal was crying in there. 

“Neal, buddy? Do you understand what I'm saying?” 

“Yes.” Came Neal's faint reply after a moment. However the volume of his cries didn't lower. They rather increased. Peter texted Jones to hurry. 

“Good, good.” Peter mumbled. He felt terrible just standing there so close to Neal without being able to help him. “It's going to be okay Neal.” He tried to comfort him, raising his voice to reach over Neal's cries. 

It was like Neal couldn't understand him though, or that the sound of his voice triggered some kind of desperation in him because Neal started banging on the wall of the box. 

“Let me out!” He screamed. “I want to get out. I did it. I said it! Let out!” 

It sounded like he was getting hysterical in there. It scared Peter more than it should, but this wasn’t the Neal he knew. Neal never lost control. What had been done to him? 

“Neal! Neal calm down. Please calm down. You are going to get out. Just a few more minutes.”

“No, Peter. Now! Please. Now. I'm…” his voice lowered in volume and Peter had to press closer to hear him. “I'm scared Peter. I'm scared.” He could hear Neal mumble and tears rose in Peter's own eyes. 

"I know Neal, I know. I'm so sorry buddy. It won’t be long.” Where the hell was Jones?

He couldn't imagine what Neal must have been through in there. It was heartbreaking to hear him voice that he was scared. Neal had never admitted something like that before. He had also never heard Neal begging for something before like he did now.

“Please, please, please Peter, please.” He rambled between sobs making Peter want to burst out crying himself. What Neal said then shocked him to some extent. “I'll do whatever you want. I'll do it. I…I will. I can't anymore. I can't. Please just let me come out. “

“Neal I will, I will. As soon as I can I'll get you out. But it's locked Neal. We have to get it opened.”

Luckily Jones stormed into the room a minute later, bolt cutter in hand. 

"Thank god.” Peter said. “Hurry Jones!”

He then turned to Neal. “Jones is here Neal. We are getting you out now.”

It took Jones only seconds and then he and Peter pushed the lid open together. 

Neal looked absolutely awful. 

He was slumped down in a heap, leaning uncomfortably against the walls. The box was too small for him to sit upright or to stretch his leg. He held his left hand up against the light so at first they couldn't see his face. He was wearing the same clothes he had been wearing when he was taken except he was missing both shoes and his jacket. The shirt he had looked dirty and wet and stuck against his skin. He had his right, broken arm pressed against him.   
Neal was shaking. He was still crying. He moaned when he sat up a bit straighter and removed his arm form his face. Peter couldn't stop himself from gasping at the sight of Neal's face. His face was the worst thing of his appearance. It was flushed and covered in a layer of what looked like dirt, sweat, blood and tears. He had bruises all across his face, a blue eye and his lip was split. Blood was smeared around where it had happened. His hair was uncombed and plastered against his head and forehead. 

“Oh Neal…” Peter said.

Neal started struggling then. He tried to get out. He pushed against the wall trying to heave himself out. Peter and Jones stood as frozen at first but then sprang into action.

“Neal wait, wait, calm down. Let us help you.” Peter tried. 

“No!” Neal screamed hoarsely. “You said I could get out! Help me!”

“We will, we will. Jones take his arm. Careful.”

They got a hold of Neal and started to pull him up. When he moaned Peter wanted to stop, but that wasn't an option. Neal stood on shaky legs and as soon as he could he heaved himself over the edge. Peter and Jones caught him and began lowering him to the ground, but Neal resisted. 

“No! I don't want to lay down. No, please no.” His eyes flickered widely around the room and as he saw the open door his struggles intensified. It was almost like he wasn't aware of that Peter and Jones were there. But they let him sit up leaned against the box. Peter swallowed. He needed to do something. 

"Jones.” He said quietly “go and see where the ambulance are at. Get them here.”

Jones just nodded and left the room. Peter sat down on the floor close to Neal. 

“Neal, Neal. Look at me please. Neal it's Peter.” 

Neal met his eyes then. “Peter? You came.” He was panting.

“Of course I did Neal. It's over now. You are safe.”

Neal looked like he didn't believe him at all. His eyes kept flickering towards the door. 

“Can we leave?” He asked. “Please Peter I want to leave. What if they come back.”

“They won’t come back. We have agents all over the place. We are getting you some help and then we’ll leave. We are just going to wait here for a bit, okay.”  
Neal’s good hand grabbed a hold of Peter’s arm. “You’ll stay right?” 

“Yes.” Neal didn’t answer. He kept his eyes towards the door, his grip on Peter’s arm was hard. Peter felt useless. He should do something to calm Neal down, make him understand that it was over. He just wasn’t sure what. 

“It’s over Neal. You are safe now.”

Neal didn’t react. He had stopped crying, but tears were still not dried from his eyes. 

Neal flinched and his grip hardened as two paramedics, Jones and two other agents came into the room. 

“It’s okay Neal. They are here to help. You are going to let them.” 

Neal nodded and Peter let of a shaky sigh of relief. Neal was aware of what was going on around him at least. He let the paramedics load him up on a gurney and let them check him over. He moaned when they touch his arm, but didn’t say anything. Peter made sure he stood in Neal’s line of sight at all times. He also got to go with them in the ambulance. It was okay since Neal didn’t have any serious injuries. Peter wasn’t sure he agreed. What he saw was serious enough. 

“You can relax now. It’s okay.” 

Neal looked up at him with wide eyes. 

“But Peter…” He breathed. ”I…I didn’t…I couldn’t…I said...”

“It’s okay. Just rest Neal. It’s okay.” 

”It is?” 

”Yes it is.”

Neal seemed satisfied with that because his eyes closed a few minutes later and he finally relaxed. When they arrived at the hospital Neal was taken away and Peter was showed to a waiting room with promises of updates as soon as it was any. 

Peter collapsed in a chair and closed his eyes for a while. Finally that knot in his stomach opened up a bit and he could allow himself to relax. He had found Neal. It was over, at least for Neal. They didn’t have any leads on the people who took Neal yet, but Jones had stayed behind to help process the scene. 

Peter couldn’t get rid of the image of Neal when they had opened that box. The way Neal had struggled to get out of there. A shudder ran through Peter at the thought of Neal in there, at the thought of what he had endured. It had reduced Neal to something he wasn’t. Rage blossomed inside him at the thought that someone consider themselves to have the right to do that to Neal. He would find them and make them pay. At least as soon as he knew that Neal was okay. He needed to make sure that Neal was okay. Neal was going to need him now and Peter intended to be there for him. They were friends. He had told Neal that over the phone. It was time to show Neal that now. Neal would need all the friends he could get. 

He called Elizabeth then and she promised to be there as soon as she could. That was good. Peter needed her.


End file.
